Lawyer, cohort sued by Japanese for selling fake gold bars

A lawyer and a woman fell into an entrapment operation conducted by operatives from the Manila Police District-General Assignment and Investigation Section (MPD-GAIS) based on the complaint of a Japanese national to whom they allegedly sold fake gold bars in Ermita, Manila sometime in August.

Now facing a case of estafa before the Manila Prosecutor’s Office are Arlene Ohgiku, alias Arlene Perer, 39, of 395 G. Bautista St., San Jose, Rodriguez, Rizal, and John Alicda Kollin, a lawyer, 52, of Baguio City.

Their alleged accomplice, identified as one Rolly Sanchez, is now being hunted down by the police.

Victim Jun Shirakawa, 26, told the MPD-GAIS that the suspects sold him the fake gold bars worth P3.1 million last August.

When he returned to Japan, it was then that he found out that the said gold bars were fake, so he flew back to the Philippines on October 11, just to file a formal complaint.

He told the MPD-GAIS that he still had a balance of about P1 million payable to the suspects and that they were slated to meet at the New World Hotel on Pedro Gil Street in Manila at around 9 the other night.

An entrapment operation was thus laid out resulting in the arrest of the two suspects.